Of Fills and Flaws

There’s an ongoing debate about fills in briar pipes. Many people won’t buy a pipe with any kind of fill. To clarify, a fill is when there’s a flaw in the outside of a (mostly) finished pipe that has been filled in with a putty or a mixture of briar dust and glue. Does putting a fill in a pipe constitute trying to “put one over” on the consumer? In my mind, not really, as long as the pipe sells for less than what a flawless piece would cost. People ask why the maker didn’t just sandblast or rusticate the pipe. A small flaw might not be discovered until the final sanding after the pipe has been stained. At that point, blasting or carving may be out of the question. An artisan carver would almost certainly use a combination of briar dust and cyanoacrylate (super glue) to fill in the flaw, as this combination will accept stain so the fill will be virtually invisible.

If a flaw is noticed early enough, sandblasting or rusticating the pipe is the usual fix, as long as the flaw isn’t deep enough that it might cause a burnout. If there’s even a chance that the flaw goes that deep into the briar, it’s basically firewood. I understand why someone would like a “perfect” pipe, but briar is a particularly imperfect material because it grows underground, so pits and voids are pretty much unavoidable. I know that people might view filling a flaw as an attempt to deceive, but let’s look at some facts. First, briar isn’t cheap. It’s difficult to harvest, takes a lot of care to cure properly and only grows in select locations around the Mediterranean. Second, according to our own Dan Chlebove, if the pipe is truly hand made, including a hand cut stem, it will usually take him 8 to 12 hours to make a pipe start to finish. Factor in that a pipe maker will wind up throwing away some of their pipes because of large flaws, their profit margin is actually pretty slim, except for some of the elite. Looking at it that way, using a small fill to save a pipe doesn’t seem to be a terrible thing.

The funny thing is, I’ve seen people pass around a pipe that they just got from a high-end factory or artisan with pride, and after looking at it, I’ve noticed some fills, even though they were artfully done, and I’m certainly never going to point it out because I don’t want to spoil their enjoyment. There are pipes out there over a thousand dollars with fills, but they command the price because of who made them and I’ve seen factory pipes that sell for $30 without a single flaw. Which is more justified? That depends upon the buyer.

Personally, if I like the esthetics of a pipe and it smokes well, a well-done fill won’t bother me. If it’s been done using putty so that after awhile it becomes readily apparent, I’m going to be more than a little ticked off. I guess what it comes down to for me is how well the fill is done. after all, if you don’t know it’s there, it shouldn’t bother you, right?

Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for www.pipesandcigars.com in Bethlehem, PA. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144.

I have to admit I am a fill snob. But, the fact is it’s harder and harder to get “flawless” pipes. And that’s not the craftsman’s fault, that’s nature. Briar has been harvest for production pipe making for over 100 years now. It’s a dwindling supply, and the people willing to do the back breaking work of digging beneath a white heath tree in very rock soil, by hand to dig our a burl, well, they’re not lining up for that position. So over-all, the unfinished wood just isn’t what it used to be.
Still – fills annoy me. It’s “un-natural”. Pits do not bother me at all. Personally I’d rather have the pit stay than a fill. I’ve had some pipes, that I owned for years before I noticed the fill. As Russ mentioned, so makers do it right and well, and others use red putty and go with it.
I have a Savinelli billiard that I bought 20 years ago – smokes like a dream, but every time when I finish the bowl and poke in the cleaner, I noticed the putty fill and sigh. I just wish it weren’t there.
Done right they’re almost undetectable. The most important thing though, from personal experience, fills do not in anyway effect how a pipe will smoke. Matter of fact, out of the three hundred plus pipes I’ve owned over time, some I kept, some I passed on, some I re-sold, I’ve had very few that was a “bad” smoker, pretty much all of them was at least “good”. Take your time, break in it in properly – learn to smoke slow, keep the wood (even the fills) clean and take care of it and you’ll likely have a 100 year friend, one that will outlive you, and your kids.
Even with that damnable fill…. I’m not going to stop smoking that nice old Savinelli billiard.

I agree that a fill does not alter the smoke from a briar; and of my 3 pipes in 50 years that distinguished themselves by providing a better taste than the others, one had a large fill.
However, a fill is a flaw in the pipe, and regardless of an artisan’s profit margin, I believe he is ethically bound to say if the pipe is flawed, as the flaw cannot usually be detected until after some time after purchase.

To argue that the price of the pipe should be used by the consumer to determine if there is a flaw that will pop up sooner or later is not convincing since even highly priced pipes have fills, as you indicated.

Sadly, hiding fills has become the standard of the industry and probably will never change until a few craftsmen decide it would be better business to be honest.

Curse you, Russ Oulette!! Minutes after reading this, pits and fills suddenly appeared on my favorite pipes! Thankfully, I have the attention span of a goldfish with ADD & they all disappeared in a cloud of HGL. Oh well, pit happens.

This had to be the best article on pipe fills I have ever read. I just posted an article to my Medium blog about buying cheap briars vs expensive ones. This really proves why a pipe of any value should be used to simply enjoy the tobacco it holds – and nothing more.